47th Anniversary

Busy day today. Lots of pictures to share with you all, gentle readers. We left Flagstaff about 10 this morning and took the scenic route through the national forest to the Grand Canyon.

Above 6500 ft the pinion pines and junipers begin to give way to the ponderosa pines. This ride through the forest was good for my soul after days and days of desert.

We also say some really interesting rock formations and this place where the whole side of the mountain had just slid down.

We entered the park a little before noon. If you get tired of looking at pictures of the Grand Canyon, sorry. We just couldn’t stop taking its picture.

Who do you suppose that is?

Look there she is again!

This next group was taken at Grandview, one of the original hotel sites in the late 19th century.

Farther along the south rim.

We finally spotted the river, far in the distance, at the bottom of the canyon.

If you look really close you can see the rapids on the river, just to the left of the sign.

We went out the east gate and turned north on the highway through the Painted Desert.

The colors don’t show up really well in the photos, but there were a lot of gradations of color from grey to pink to red to orange to white to palest blue.

We all know that I hate, abhor, and despise the desert in all its various forms. So why on earth did I take so many pictures of it.
Because once I get to Tacoma I don’t EVER have to go to or through the desert again. And if I do go through the desert again, I sincerely hope it will be on a lovely air conditioned train, preferably at night when I don’t have to look at it.

Say good bye to the desert!
In Page, AZ, we saw a little of Lake Powell. There was quite a controversy about the creation of the lake because of the incredible geological formations that are now submerged, and possibly lost forever.

We celebrated our 47th anniversary at the Olive Garden in St. George, Utah.
Tomorrow we see Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon. I hope I can figure out what time zone I’m in, because we’ve been in and out and in and out again of Arizona that is really in Mountain time but it doesn’t observe Daylight Savings, so it’s with Pacific time. We’re in Utah, and (I hope) we’ll stay in Mountain time until we go into Pacific time in Washington.